During municipal, state or national emergencies, it is essential that emergency workforce such as first responders (i.e., police, fire, emergency medical, public health, etc.) and infrastructure personnel (i.e., water, electricity, gas, sanitation workers) are administered medication and/or prophylactic drugs in an efficient and timely manner in order to maintain civil control and services. Lessons learned through previous emergencies indicate that during instances of an emergency (e.g., the terrorist attacks on the United States on Sep. 11, 2001, wildfires in southern California and Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, etc.), the emergency workforce are forced to make sure their families are safe before ensuring the safety of the public.
During instances of a municipal, statewide or national emergency event, the emergency workforce and/or their families are also at risk. For example, the city of Detroit, Mich. has approximately 7,000 first responders and key infrastructure personnel. The current standards of estimating the number of family members per emergency workforce maybe determined by multiplying the responder and key infrastructure personnel by a factor of 4 or 4.5. The factor of four represents one responder and 3 (or 3.5) family members. Region 2 South (which includes Detroit, Wayne, Macomb, and Oakland Counties) adheres to this standard. This translates into an estimated 28,000 people in Detroit who may require medication and/or prophylactic drugs as soon as an emergency is declared. According to current standards of care, each person may require receipt of sufficient amounts of medication and/or prophylactic drugs for at least three days.
The current system also lack proactive processes for quickly and efficiently identifying and reaching members of the special needs population (i.e., children, elderly, home bound, etc.), proper planning for quickly and efficiently dispensing resources to the special need populations, and/or means for tracking what resources and services are being accessed and utilized in a timely fashion. Therefore, situations such as making crude estimates of the number and type of medication required during an emergency are largely inaccurate. Accordingly, this could leave many of the special needs population untreated.
The current plan involves giving emergency workforce members the number of doses of prophylactic drugs requested during an emergency, which is highly inefficient and prone to abuse. Moreover, the current plan lacks a sufficient response to managing pediatric doses of prophylactic drugs, allergies, and/or special medical needs such as renal failure or the elderly. The reactive nature of the system is also disadvantageous; discovery of an insufficient supply of prophylactic drugs and medication at the time of an emergency can be fatal to many. In the event the emergency lasts in excess of three days, thereby requiring additional medication and/or prophylactic drugs, the current system lacks any protocols for quickly evaluating the response of the prior three days in real time.